A Desire to be like Christ

Philippians 2:3-4 (NLT)
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

Here the apostle talks about having the attitude of Christ to love and serve one another. Pride and loftiness are two attitudes that fight against us in life when it comes to serving others. We must therefore learn humility so that we do not always put ourselves ahead of others. It is our responsibility to take an interest in the lives of others and serve them as we can, just as Christ serves and loves us.

 

 

 

Wayne Cordeiro in a sermon, ‘A Personal Relationship’, said the following. I have a friend named Gene who would take me to lunch every week. And every time we'd go to lunch, he'd insist on paying for it. I thought it was nice and that maybe it was his ministry, so I let him do it for the first 80 times or so. But after a while I said to him, "Gene, let me pay today. You always pick up the tab." He said, "No, no, no. I want to pick up the tab." I said, "Come on. I want to do this." He said, "No, no, no."

So the next week I got there early and said to the waitress, "When the bill comes, would you bring it straight to me?" She said, "Oh, Gene said you might do this, so I can't give it to you. I have to give it to him." I said, "Come on. You're kidding." She said, "No, that's what he said."

So I sat down and said, "Gene, would you let me pay for the lunch?" He said, "No, no. I'll pick up the tab." I said, "Gene, I want to pick up the tab." He said, "No." I said, "I yearn to pick up the tab." He said, "No." I said, "Gene, I'm starting to dream about picking up the tab." He said, "No, I want to pick up the tab." "I beg you," I said, "let me pick up the tab." He said, "No." Till this day I have not yet picked up the tab on lunch.

Listen carefully. Jesus has picked up your tab not once, not twice, but thousands of times. Because of that relationship, you start to feel compelled to do the same. We love because he loves; not because we learned it in Sunday school, not because we get points for it, not because we think we're going to gain or garner God's blessings if we do. We love because he first loved us.

 

 

As I had someone tell me once, Satan comes forward when we sin and accuses us. Imagine Satan telling God, “Look at the sinful deeds of your servant.” Then Jesus steps forward as He has done so many times and says, “I paid for that sin and that sin had been forgiven. The one you call sinful is a child of ours that is loved dearly.” If you can think about the number of times Christ has done that for you it will set a desire in you to return to Christ what He has done for you so many, many times.